CMSD moves closer to building new O.H. Perry

By the CMSD News Bureau

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District is moving closer to building a new Oliver H. Perry School.

Plans were to go before the city Planning Commission on Feb. 5. The schedule calls for groundbreaking in late August or early September and the completion of work by December 2017.

The school will be built on a different part of the Schenely Avenue property that the existing Oliver H. Perry now occupies. That will avoid the need to relocate students during construction.

A volunteer advisory committee made up of district representatives, community leaders, neighborhood residents and community partners has been meeting since last summer to help architects with the building design, site plan and traffic flow.

CEDA, which stands for Cleveland Educational Design Alliance, designed the building. CEDA is affiliated with TDA Architecture.

The new school will hold 470 students, with one classroom for preschool and two for each level from kindergarten through eighth grade. The building will have spaces for music, art, a media center and a project lab.

The construction was made possible when voters overwhelmingly approved Issue 4, a $200 million bond issue, in November 2014. CMSD plans to build 20 to 22 schools and remodel 20 to 23, continuing a modernization program that began in 2001. 

The state will contribute slightly more than $2 for every $1 the district spends on new construction. The bond issue did not increase taxes.

the CMSD News Bureau

Thomas Ott is director of the CMSD News Bureau

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Volume 8, Issue 2, Posted 4:59 PM, 02.06.2016